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Treat It Gentle: An Autobiography
This autobiography was taken down in interviews with John Ciardi and Joan Reid, and put into book form by Desmond Flower. In it, Bechet reacalls his life in music, highlighting his narrative with tales of Sunday afternoon bucking contests between black and Creole musicianers, his deportation from London, and the gunfight that put him in jail in Paris."
Paperback
,
240 pages
Published
December 31st 1978
by Da Capo Press
(first published November 30th 1961)
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Community Reviews
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As an autobiography, this book by the great jazz saxophonist/clarinetist is practically worthless. But that's not really what this book is about.
The first half (and much of the rest) is something else entirely - a beautifully poetic, homespun meditation on the nature and meaning of music, particularly as it relates to being a black American. At its best, it's really remarkable.
Treat It Gentle can't really be taken as a factual work, for the most part. The long chapter about Bechet's "grandfather ...more
The first half (and much of the rest) is something else entirely - a beautifully poetic, homespun meditation on the nature and meaning of music, particularly as it relates to being a black American. At its best, it's really remarkable.
Treat It Gentle can't really be taken as a factual work, for the most part. The long chapter about Bechet's "grandfather ...more
This might not be the most reliable source about the history of New Orleans jazz, but it is one of the most poetic.
like many books in my library, i've been meaning to read this one for a while now. what an amazing life story sidney bechet recounts in this text! from the first chapter, where he describes his grandfather omar's heart-wrenching story, bechet keeps you engaged, interested, and in his heart. why is it that musicians have a way of telling stories that just grabs my attention? (on the flip side of that, at times they can be a bit UNbelievable) :) his tales of playing gigs and funny anecdotes about
...more
A good autobiography about a true icon of jazz. Sidney Bechet, clarinetist and saxophonist, came up with the likes of Louis Armstrong, Joe Oliver, Freddie Keppard and Buddy Bolden, even beating Armstrong to the recording studio by a matter of months.
It's obvious this autobiography was dictated by Bechet and, in fact, he passed away just before it was first published in 1960. The language is of the time, pulling words and phrasing from early 20th century New Orleans, New York and Europe. As with ...more
It's obvious this autobiography was dictated by Bechet and, in fact, he passed away just before it was first published in 1960. The language is of the time, pulling words and phrasing from early 20th century New Orleans, New York and Europe. As with ...more
Aug 27, 2007
Chris Q. Murphy
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
those unfamiliar with bechet's orthodox views on jazz.
it's easy to fall under bechet's spell on this one. unless read side-by-side with other biographical material, one may believe that this jazz trailblazer is the good-natured, though sometimes sweetly curmudgeonly, patriarch he paints himself to be. and therein lies the genius of this book.
his editors and this soprano saxophone pioneer appeared to have one goal in mind: to save jazz (as they knew it) from the scourge of then-contemporary arbiters of africanist improvised music. and so they set ou ...more
his editors and this soprano saxophone pioneer appeared to have one goal in mind: to save jazz (as they knew it) from the scourge of then-contemporary arbiters of africanist improvised music. and so they set ou ...more
Though one can get bogged down in Mr. Bechet's recollections of people met, sessions played, and places visited, the passages about music--where it comes from, how it should be made, what can spoil it--are prose-poetry. And though they come from a supposed "old musicianer" like Bechet, they could just as easily come from the mind of Ornette Coleman. The opening, a retelling of a story about his grandfather and slavery and music, is absolutely stunning.
This book's charm comes from Sidney Bechet's voice that comes through on every page. I have never heard him speak but actually enjoyed reading it in my mind in a voice that I imagined he would have. Sidney Bechet was obviously a great "musicianer" as he calls himself, but also an old soul who could really tell a story. You will finish this book with a greater appreciation of not just jazz but all music.
"And to give you what this Jazz is - all you need is a few men who can hear what the man next him is doing at the same time that you know your instrument and how you can say on it what you gotta say to keep the next man going with you, leading one another on to the place the music has to go."
I read this book with a lens that focused on the performance culture. It certainly is a Black history book as well.
I don't know how much of Sidney Bechet's autobiography is "true". I do know that it is real.
The greatest book I've ever read on jazz and music.
Wonderful language, evocative and profound
Wonderful language, evocative and profound
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